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Urban Political Machines

Urban Political Machines

Lincoln Steffens was famous for his investigations of urban (city) politics. In 1904 he collected his
writings on St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York into his book; The
Shame of the Cities.

Primary source #1From The Shame of the Cities by Lincoln Steffens

Tammany (Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic political
machine or organization that dominated New York City politics) is bad government:
not inefficient, but dishonestTammany is Tammany, the embodiment of
corruption [it] used to stuff the ballot boxes and intimidate voters (page 289)
Lincoln Steffens. The Shame of the Cities. (New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904)

Primary source #2From The Shame of Minneapolis by Lincoln Steffens

The boss (the powerful politicians that have great controlling influence on
voters) has normal control of more than half the voters The people who were left to
govern the city hated above all things strict laws. They were the loafers (lazy people),
saloon (bar) keepers, gamblers, criminals, and the thriftless (worthless) poor of all
nationalities.
if a man was a hard drinker, [the Mayor of Minneapolis] cheered him with
another drink; if he had stolen something, [the mayor] helped to get him off. He was
naturally vain (useless) [the Mayor was] head of a system of robbery, black mail, and
plunder (steal) conducted by professional criminals under police direction
Burglaries (robberies) were common. How many the police planned may never be
known.
McClures Magazine. Volume XX- November1902 to April 1903. (New York: The S. S. McClures Co., 1903)

Urban Political Machines

Primary source #3Political Cartoons by Thomas Nast

Thats Whats The Matter

The caption: Boss Tweed. As long as I count the votes, What are you going to do about it? Say? (1871)

(1871)

Child Labor

Child Labor
Primary source #1The Bitter Cry of the Children by John Spargo,
Think of what it means to be a trap boy at ten years of age (a trap boy is a child who watches
over the door of a mine for hours and opens it whenever someone is to leave or come in). It means to sit alone in
a dark mine passage hour after hour, with no human soul near; to see no living creature
except the mules as they pass with their loads, or a rat or two seeking to share ones meal; to
stand in water or mud that covers the anklesto work for fourteen hourswaitingopening
and shutting a doorthen waiting againfor sixty cents Some factories are known as
kindergartens on account of the large number of small children employed in them. It is by
no means a rare occurrence for children in these factories to faint or to fall asleep over their
work In more than one canning factory in New York State, I have seen children of six and
seven years of age working at two o clock in the morning The coal is hard, and accidents to
the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes
there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the
machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered 34 and dead. Clouds
of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma.
John Spargo. The Bitter Cry of the Children. (New York: The McMillan Company., 1906)

Primary source #2The Bitter Cry of the Children by John Spargo

Chapter III: The Working Child
In this boasted (rich) land of freedom there are bonded baby slaves,
And the busy world goes by and does not heed (notice).
They are driven to the mill (factory), just to glut and overfill (to give someone too much)
Bursting (filling) coffers (boxes) of the mighty monarch (powerful king), Greed.
When they perish (die) we are told it is Gods will,
Oh, the roaring of the mill, of the mill!
John Spargo. The Bitter Cry of the Children. (New York: The McMillan Company., 1906)

Child Labor

Primary source #3Lewis Hines photos of child labor in America, 1908-1912

The factory:

Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on the spinning
frame to mend broken threads and put back the empty bobbins. Bibb
Mill No. 1 Macon, Ga.

The overseer said apologetically, She just happened in. She was
working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who just happened
in or are helping sister. Newberry, S.C.

Young cigar makers in Engelhardt & Co. Three boys looked under 14. Youngsters all smoke. Tampa, Fla.

Newsies:

Newsboy asleep on stairs with papers. Jersey City, New Jersey

A small newsie on a Saturday afternoon. St. Louis, Missouri.

Temperance

Temperance
The temperance movement was the movement to stop alcoholism in America. It was led primarily by women who feared that men who
drank alcohol destroyed American society. The Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1873, drew a lot of
support by linking the fight against liquor with the desire to protect home and family. Carrie nation or Carrie Hatchet was one of the
leaders of the WCTU.

Primary source #1The Use and Need of Carrie Nation by Carrie Nation (1904)
[Carrie nation speaking] Mrs. Elliott, a good Christian woman, came to my home crying

bitterly and between sobs told me, that for six weeks her husband had been drinking at
Dursts bar, until he was crazy. She had been washing to feed her three children and for some
days had nothing in the house but cornbread and molasses. She said that her husband had
come in, wild with drink and run his family out and kicked over the table and she said: I came
to you to ask you what to do. I told her that I did not know, but for her to come with me.
We walked down to Henry Dursts place, a distance of half a mile. I fell down on my knees
before the screen and began to call on God Mrs. Elliott also prayed We then told this man
that God would hear...if he did not change. In less than two weeks he closed his bar
[Later on in the book Ms. Nation explains how she convinced another bar owner to shut down his bar]

I said: Mr. Dobson (owner of the bar), I told you last spring...to close this place, and you
didnt do it. Now I have come with another remonstrance (protest). Get out of the way. I
dont want to strike you, but I am going to break up this [BAR] I began to throw [bricks] at
the mirror and the bottles below the mirror. Mr. Dobson and his companion jumped into a
corner, seeming very much terrified. From that I went to another saloon (bar), until I had
destroyed three, breaking some of the windows in the front of the building
This excerpt is from Carry A. Nation, The Use and Need of Carry A. Nation (Topeka: F.M. Steves & Sons, 1904), p. 49.

Temperance movement

Primary source #2Political Cartoons from the Anti-Saloon League:

The Drunkards Progress (1846)

From the first glass to the grave: Step 1. A glass with a friend./Step 2. A glass to keep the cold out./Step 3. A glass too much./Step 4. Drunk and riotous./ Step 5. The
summit attained. Jolly companions. A confirmed drunkard./ Step 6. Poverty and disease./ Step 7. Forsaken by Friends./ Step 8. Desperation and crime./ Step 9. Death
by suicide.

Saloon (bar)

Rescued
by The Anti-Saloon league 1896

Urban life

City Life
Another famous muckraker was Jacob A. Riis. He was a writer and a photographer. During the Progressive Era, he took it
upon himself to capture images of the poor living conditions that urban workers, especially immigrants lived in.

Primary source #1How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among The Tenements of New
York by Jacob A. Riis (1906)
Long ago it was said that one half of the world does not know how the other half
lives the half that was on top cared little for the struggles and less for the fate of those
who were underneath The younger criminals seem to come almost exclusively (solely)
from the tenement house districts in the tenements all the influences make for evil:
because they are the hot-beds of the epidemics (diseases) that carry deaththe
nurseries of pauperism (very poor people) and crime that fill our jails and police
courts...
[Then, Mr. Riis begins to explain what he saw in the tenement neighborhoods] The death of
a child in a tenement was registered at the Bureau of Vital Statistics as plainly due to
suffocation in the foul air (disgusting and unpleasant smell) of an unventilated apartment
[One day] in taking a flash-light picture of a group of blind beggars (person who is
very poor and begs for money) in one of the tenements down here I managed to set fire to
the houseThere were six of us, five blind men and women who knew nothing of their
danger, and myself in an attic roomThe thought: how were they ever to get out? Made
my blood run cold as I saw the flames creeping up the wall, and my first impulse was to
bolt for the street and shout for help. The next was to smother the fire myself, and I did,
with a vast deal of trouble. Afterward, when I came down to the street I told a friendly
policeman of my trouble. For some reason, he thought it rather a good joke, and
laughed immoderately (a lot) at my concern He told me why, when he found time to
draw breath, Why, dont you know, he said, that house is the Dirty Spoon? It caught
fire six times last winter, but it wouldnt burn. The dirt was so thick on the walls, it
smothered (put out) the fire!
Jacob A. Riis. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenement of New York. (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1906)

Urban life

Primary source #2How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis (1906)

Upstairs in Blindmans Alley chapter IV page 34.

Bandits Roost chapter VI page 63.

(photograph by Jacob A. Riis)

(photograph by Jacob A. Riis)

Lodgers in a crowded Bayard Street Tenement chapter VII

Bottle Alley chapter VII page 66.

page 69. (photograph by Jacob A. Riis)

(photograph by Jacob A. Riis)

Product safety

Product Safety
Upton Sinclair was a journalist that became famous for his novel, The Jungle. Mr. Sinclair is remembered today as one of
the most popular muckrakers of the Progressive Era. The Jungle was a novel that had the intent to portray the lives of
immigrants in the United States. However, readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the
bad practices of the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century. During the time The Jungle was
written, Social Darwinism was the philosophy that represented most Americans' attitudes. It was interpreted by many as the
concept of survival of the fittest, which translated to industrialists as having no or minimal regulation (especially of factory
conditions and workers rights) to the economy. Sinclair was one of the muckrakers or journalists who exposed this problem.
Below is an excerpt of The Jungle, where Sinclair describes the poor working conditions that workers labored in and the
products that were then sold and consumed by Americans.

Primary source #1The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906)

[Below is Upton Sinclairs portrayal of Chicago slaughterhouses:]

There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there
would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that
was moldy and whiteThere would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt
and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of germs. There
would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip
over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage
places to see well, but a man could run his hands over these piles of meat and sweep off
handfuls of the dried dung (manure) of rats. These rats were nuisances (annoying), and the
packers would put poison bread out for them; they would die, and then the rats, bread,
and meat would go into the hoppers (machine that grinds meat) together. This is no fairy story
and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling
would not trouble to lift up a rat even when he saw one.
There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate dinner, and so they
made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled (put) into the sausage.
in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale (moldy) water and cartload
after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and
sent to the publics breakfast.
Upton Sinclair. The Jungle. (Upton Sinclair., 1906)

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Product safety.

Primary source #2Photographs from a Chicago meatpacking industry:

Chicago meatpacking plant, 1892 (Photo courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society)

Stuffing sausages, 1893,

Note how many children are on the job.

Stuffing sausages, 1905,

the year Upton Sinclair researched The Jungle.

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and

Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-97455

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and

Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-50217

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Workers rights

Workers Rights
Primary source #1To the People of the United States by Samuel Gompers (1893)
A hundred thousand men, women, and children are nearing the verge of starvation
in this rich metropolis (city) of these free United States. Hundreds of thousands of others
are within but a short distance from want and [this leads to] suffering, misery and crime
A few thousand men and women enjoy wealth while [hopeless] millions [beg] in the dust
begging for work and bread Against these conditions we, the organized workers of the
city of New York, enter our serious and determined protest and warning.... We believe
that the organization of workers in [labor] unions is the purest guarantee of a peaceful
solution of the world-wide problem: How to abolish poverty.
Samuel Gompers, The American Federation of Labor, To the People of the United States, (New York, September 1893)

Primary source #2The Triangle Shirtwaist fire by The New York Times (March 26, 1911)
Three stories of a ten-floor building at the corner of Greene Street and Washington
Place were burned yesterday, and while the fire was going on 141 young men and women
at least 125 of them mere girls were burned to death or killed by jumping to the pavement
below Most of the victims were suffocated or burned to death within the building, but
some who fought their way to the windows and leaped met death as surely, but perhaps
more quickly, on the pavements below The victims who are now lying at the Morgue
waiting for someone to identify them by a tooth or the remains of a burned shoe were
mostly girls from 16 to 23 years of age Many of them came from Brooklyn. Almost all
were the main support of their hard-working families There was just one fire escape in
the building [but it was impossible to use because of the fire] The girls rushed to the
windows and looked down at Greene Street, 100 feet below them. Then one poor, little
creature jumped. There was a plate glass protection over part of the sidewalk, but she
crashed through it, wrecking it and breaking her body into a thousand pieces. Then they all
began to drop. The crowd yelled "Don't jump!" but it was jump or be burned the proof of
which is found in the fact that fifty burned bodies were taken from the ninth floor alone.
They jumped, they crashed through broken glass, they crushed themselves to death on the
sidewalk.
141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Firestreet Strewn with Bodies; Piles of Dead Inside by The New York Times (March 26, 1911)

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Workers rights

Primary source #3Photos of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)

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Monopolies and Trusts

Monopolies and Trusts

The following excerpt is the work of Ida Tarbell a journalists who concentrated her efforts to uncover the unfair business practices
of monopolies and trusts. Ms. Tarbells focus was on John D. Rockefellers monopoly, The Standard Oil Company, which grew to
become one of the countrys largest and most influential businesses. Ms. Tarbell emphasized on the unethical and unfair practices of
his monopoly.

Primary source #1The History of the Standard Oil Company by Ida Tarbell
(1902)
How does [Rockefeller] keep his power? By better methods of doing
business, or by preventing [his] rivals from securing equal advantages in
transportation and in markets? Is the public getting a share of the vast (many) savings
the trust claims it makes by the economies of combination (building a monopoly), or is
the trust keeping this savings? [Is Rockefeller] conducting his enterprise with honor
and dignity, and regard to the public good?
[Rockefeller] and his partners conceived (had) a great idea -- the advantages of
COMBINATION (building a monopoly) In the fall of 1871, certain refiners brought to
Rockefeller a scheme, the gist of which was to bring together secretly a large enough
body of refiners and shippers -- a SECRET COMBINATION -- to persuade all the
railroads handling oil to give to the company formed special rebates (discounts) on oil
shipped, and *drawbacks* (raised rates) on that of other people. If they could get such
rates it was evident that those outside of their combination could not compete with
them long and that *they* would become, eventually, the dominant refiners Under
the threat of this SECRET COMBINE the Standard Oil Company rose.
Steadily, year after year, [the smaller businesses and the independent
business men] disappeared from the business as the Standard Oil Company grew
It was combine or die in the Oil Regions, and there were men who preferred to die
[to go bankrupt]
McClures Magazine: Cairns Collection of American Women Writers. Volume XIX- May 1902 to October 1902. (New
York: The S. S. McClures Co., 1902)

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Monopolies and Trusts

Primary source #2Political Cartoons depicting monopolies and Trusts

What a funny little government, (The Verdict, January 22, 1900. New York Public Library.)

Workman

Hopelessly Bound to the Stake, Source: Puck, August 15, 1883

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When your group has completed the analysis of your primary sources, use your findings
to answer these questions about the Progressives:

1. What problems do Muckrakers seem to be trying to reform?

____________________________________________________________________
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2. How did you respond to the work of these Muckrakers?
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3. How did Muckrakers get people to care about their problems?
____________________________________________________________________
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4. What is the impact and response that Muckrakers look for?
____________________________________________________________________
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